Ahead of tonight’s game the Nashville Predators have announced that Viktor Arvidsson has been recalled from the Milwaukee Admirals under emergency conditions. It is Arvidsson’s first career NHL call up.

Nashville, Tenn. (March 20, 2015) – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced Friday that the Predators have recalled forward Viktor Arvidsson from Milwaukee (AHL) under emergency conditions. He will wear No. 38.

Arvidsson, 21 (4/8/93), currently leads the Admirals, is tied for the AHL rookie lead, and tied for 10th among all AHL skaters in points (20g-31a-51pts) while playing in all 63 of the team’s games this season. The Kusmark, Sweden, native is also second among all rookies in goals and fourth among first-year players in assists, as well as ranking second among rookies in power-play goals (7), and tied for fourth in game-winning goals (4). He also leads the entire AHL in shots by 28 (237).

A 5-11, 176-pound right wing, Arvidsson – selected 112th (fourth round) by Nashville in the 2014 Draft – ranked ninth in the Swedish Hockey League in points (16g-24a-40pts) during the 2013-14 season, then helped Skelleftea win its second consecutive SHL title by tying for second in assists (12) and ranking third in points (16) during the postseason. During the title-winning season of 2012-13 he tied for fourth in playoff goals (6) and was named Swedish junior player of the year and a finalist for the SHL rookie of the year award.

Arvidsson tied for eighth in goals (4) at the 2013 World Junior Championship, helping Sweden to a silver medal, and also earned silver at the 2011 Under-18 World Championship, playing alongside Predators forward Filip Forsberg on both squads.

The Nashville Predators, who have an 11-3-0 record versus Eastern Conference opponents on home ice this season, take on the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena (7 p.m. CT, FOX Sports Tennessee, 102.5 The Game). Saturday’s game is the second of three consecutive home games for the Preds; Nashville closes out the home stand on Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens.

Without Arvidsson this move could well signal yet another game in which an Admirals defenseman has to play the forward role. Félix Girard has missed the Admirals last two games after getting injured in his fight with Scott Valentine. And, as far as call ups go, Josh Shalla was placed on reserve yesterday by the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Jonathan Diaby is healthy. He could come back and push a defenseman out on a third or fourth line capacity for tonight.

~Update~

I love when I go into full-on speculation mode only to find out there is another solution. That solution turns out to be the Admirals first ATO signing of the season: Eric Robinson of Dartmouth College has just signed.

Toasted Whole Grain: That’s the question I just threw out to the Twitter-verse. Not being snarky by asking it. I love whenever our guys get called up and actually prefer a scenario like this rather than what almost always happens: call up the day of the game to minimize the dollar amount of NHL pay for the day they can play to the day the aren’t required. From the sounds of things lots of guys are dinged up. Notably Colin Wilson left yesterday’s practice early and never returned. If you’re looking to bring a guy up, especially one like Arvidsson, call him up now – integrate him now – let him get to know his Nashville teammates on and off the ice now – and get him warmed up before making any sort of NHL debut as quick as you can.

As much as it hurts not having Arvidsson in the lineup against Grand Rapids, I agree 100% with Dan. Oftentimes emergency call ups happen on the day of the game, but I’m guessing teams with Salary Cap room would prefer to call up a guy to give him a day to skate with the team with get to know his teammates a little bit better.

The only major issue (not counting the fresh void in the Admirals’ lineup) with the emergency call up a day prior means it is a little bit less likely that Viktor will actually play in a NHL game. Then again I don’t know the exact details of Colin Wilson’s injury or if there are any other new ones to boot. My guess is that Arvidsson will get into a game. With how he’s performed this year, and with how the Predators are sliding, worth taking a stab on Milwaukee’s leading scorer to see if he can provide a little spark.

Speaking of Arvidsson, he’s the lead of the my latest feature on Milwaukee’s unique Swedish contingent. Prior to Viktor’s callup Milwaukee leads all AHL teams with four active Swedes. Six (if you include Viktor Stalberg and Patrick Cehlin) have dressed for the club this year. 20 of 30 AHL teams have one or less Swedes on their active roster.

Thanks to Daniel Lavender’s awesome Chatterbox archive here on Admirals Roundtable for some of the soundbytes used in the piece to be appearing on MilwaukeeAdmirals.com soon!

Thuresson was recently in town, maybe we could toss him a weekend contract! Hahaha! This leaves a rather gaping hole on a team that as a group struggles to score consistently. Gonna need the defense and netminding to play exceptional going forward.